


farewell, o world of wonder

by fandom_sexual



Series: sadness is our deepest wound [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Diagon Alley, Father-Daughter Relationship, Female Friendship, Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Friendship, Gen, Goodbyes, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Angst, Minor Character(s), Mother-Daughter Relationship, Muggle-born, POV Female Character, POV Minor Character, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Knight Bus (Harry Potter), Wizarding World (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22921552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandom_sexual/pseuds/fandom_sexual
Summary: Sally doesn't want to say goodbye, but she knows she has to, the world she loves has gotten just a little more fatal for her existence, and she also wants to escape the nightmares.She is afraid, and this is goodbye.
Relationships: Sally-Anne Perks & Eloise Midgen
Series: sadness is our deepest wound [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1449637
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	farewell, o world of wonder

**Author's Note:**

> I found out that fans have speculated that Sally had left Hogwarts before her fifth year, so I just had to write a little something for it.
> 
> This kinda got away from me.
> 
> Also, stan BTS, they're amazing. :)  
> 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Sally wakes up suddenly, breathing a little uneven, the eerie silence of her room is the same as the end of her nightmare, and it makes her shiver.

She gets up and heads down to the kitchen, trying to shake of the image of Cedric's eyes open but unseeing, instead of alive and vibrant.

She gives another shudder, this nightmare has become a regular occurrence in her life and she just wants to get as far away as possible from the origins of it, but she knows that's a futile line of thought, this will follow her anywhere she will be.

Tapping the tap with her wand she fills the glass with water, something about doing this manually calms her, she gulps down the water immediately and wipes the unbidden tears that fall after.

She was not Cedric's friend, but she admired him and he had been kind to her in their few interactions in the past four years, he was Hufflepuff's pride and she knows it hurts them all deeply to have lost him.

Her parents are asleep upstairs, and she goes back to bed herself, but sleep is elusive this time around, because she is really afraid, of the future, of being a muggleborn, of going back to Hogwarts.

*

The next day she writes to Eloise, her decision made before sleep had reclaimed her last night.

She will miss Eloise dearly, her closest friend in the wizarding world, but she can't go back to the place that haunts her, to the world that will be happy to see her dead.

Eloise's tawny owl, Nyra arrives the next day, startling her mother as she opens the front door to pick up the newspaper, and Sally can't help but giggle. Even after four years her parents haven't gotten used to the Wizarding method of communication, not that she is any different with magic in general.

Nyra sits on her shoulder and nips her ear gently as Sally reads, she smiles at the owl a bit and sighs at Eloise's words.

"Mum, a friend is gonna visit tomorrow," she tells her mother softly.

Her mother's eyebrows rise, the question on her lips evident clearly to Sally, after all none of her magical friends have ever visited her home before, because Sally had been afraid that her friends would slip up and her parents would learn how much she is unwanted in the world she loves and would take her out of the school.

The situation is really ironic to her, and she isn't sure if she wants to laugh hysterically or cry the same at the universe's sense of humour, instead she tells her mother to not to worry, things changing every now and then is a good thing. She doesn't think her mother believes her words, and really she can't blame her, Sally isn't sure she believes them either.

*

Eloise is furious with her, she can tell just by looking at her as she arrives. Her parents doing their best to play host to their magical guest, and Sally feels a whole lot of affection for them then. After a while they give them space, sensing the mood.

Just as soon as they're alone Eloise pounces.

"You can't bloody leave the wizarding world just like that Sal."

"Yes, I can, Ellie." she whispers quietly, not yet ready to tell her parents.

"I know you're afraid,"

"I'm _terrified_ , Ellie," Sally cuts her off, "I've never been accepted by so many in that world, and now I could get killed for the crime of being born with magic. I know I'm being selfish, and I'm sorry, but I just can't do this."

"I've always accepted you," Eloise says quietly, "so have our entire house, and so many others, don't let the worst of our kind make you walk away from that, from all the friendships you've created."

There is hurt in those words and Sally hates herself for being the cause of it, and she breaks down.

She isn't sure how she had been holding herself up from the moment Harry came back with Cedric, all the celebrations stopping and giving way to an echoing silence, to now, but now she sobs in Eloise's arms, feels tear fall in her hair, knows she isn't the only one crying, and so she sobs some more.

She hears her father ask what's wrong, hears Eloise give some excuse or another, but beyond that she has no idea what happens after lost in her sobs as she is.

*

She must have fallen asleep sometime after tiring from the long cry, because when she opens her eyes she sees the roof of her room.

"Hey," she hears, and turns her head to see Eloise sitting on her bedside, "you okay, now?"

She nods minutely.

"Your parents got really worried."

"You didn't tell them anything, did you?" she asks with a slight panic.

"No, don't worry, I figured they had no clue, so kept my mouth shut, but they're really worried."

Sally gives a little laugh, "I did not tell them anything so they won't worry."

"But you have to, if you're still planning on leaving, and even if you weren't, you owe them an explanation for all of this," Eloise said firmly, encompassing her sorry state with her hands.

"I will," Sally starts, but then stops, "Did you just-" she breathes in slowly then out, "Are you now okay with me leaving?" she finally asks.

"I won't say I'm okay with it, but I understand."

And silly Sally that she is, she starts crying again.

*

After eating a bit, Eloise somehow convinces her and her worried parents that it would be a good idea for the two of them to go to Diagon Alley alone.

It is a terrible idea, Sally is convinced, and yet here she is ready to do what Eloise has said, that girl always has a way with words.

"Take care of Sally-Anne, please," her father says quietly, her full given name is rarely used by anybody, she is Sally to some, and Anne to others, but hearing her father say it unexpectedly warms her heart. So she gives deep hugs to both her parents, who kiss her on the temple, and she aches.

*

They take the Knight Bus for a quick and disorienting means of travel, Sally does not like it one bit, but Eloise seemed used to it, informing her this is how she came to her home too. She tries suppressing her smiles at the faces Sally makes during the few minutes trip, but fails miserably.

"I hate you," Sally says emphatically when they're deposited out of the bus, which vanishes with the same loud bang it arrived with.

"And I adore you," she gets in return, and then Eloise starts cackling like the evil witch she is.

The comparison to the muggle fairy tale stereotypes of witches makes her smile internally, as she looks up to find herself already in Diagon Alley, and not outside of the Leaky Cauldon on the muggle Street.

Diagon Alley looks very different from any of the other times she has visited it. It's still open and cheerful, which she was afraid it wouldn't be, but it isn't as busy and bustling with people as she is used to.

But as always there is the bubbling essence of magic here that she loves, that's ever present both here and at Hogwarts, and suddenly she understands why Ellie brought her here, she turn and beams at her, who smiles fondly, and then Sally is off running, like this is her first time seeing all of this beauty.

*

Sally goes to every single shop, gazing longingly at everything, whether it's all the pets in the menagerie, or too expensive cauldrons or brooms or books.

People keep giving her funny looks, but she doesn't care, this may not be her first visit in the magical district, but it very well might be her last, and she wants to commit everything to memory.

She longs to be at Hogwarts too, to say goodbye to the place that taught her so much, that felt like a warm comfort whenever she returned. She wants to go to the kitchens, and the gardens, and the Great Hall, the Quidditch pitch, and her dorms. She wants the sweet comfort of Hufflepuff Common Room, but the memory of that night in the school still haunts her, still stings, she isn't ready to go back, and it feels bittersweet, the longing, besides she isn't even sure if the castle will even be open this time of the year.

An arm hooks around hers, and Eloise steers her still form to a very familiar Ice Cream Parlour.

Sally smiles.

*

Mr. Fortescue greets them with his usual charm.

"Ah, Miss Perks and Miss Midgens, you two have arrived earlier this year than expected, any reasons?" he said with a smile.

"Oh, nothing, we were just craving your Ice Cream a lot," Sally said cheerfully.

Mr. Fortescue beamed, "Well, I hope I don't disappoint two of my favourite customers."

"Oh, you never do," Ellie piped up sitting at a table by the windows.

"You ladies flatter me so," he said again smiling, "the usual order, or do any of you want to change your palletes?"

"The usual."

*

Sitting by the same window, on the same table where the two first became friends, the two witches reminisce about the past, laughing, joking, and crying, having finished their Ice Creams, the two talk as the day wores on and the sun begins to set, it almost feels like nothing is wrong, and this won't be the last time, for a while at least, that they will do this.

No one disturbs them, the customers trickling in the shop just as slowly than in the rest of the Diagon Alley this time of the year.

Sally finally tells Eloise about the nightmares she has been having since Cedric's death, and Ellie nods understanding, like she too had had them. She wonders how many others might have been them too, and shudders thinking about what Cho and Harry must be waking up to in the middle of the night.

She doesn't let that line of thought go any further, because she can't deal with her own nightmares, worrying about two strangers who have it worse will not be helpful to them and most likely make her own nightmares worse.

Eloise buys them another two bowls of Ice Cream, and Sally really can't complain. When they're departing the shop, she thanks Mr. Fortescue profusely, making the man blush a bit, because she is really grateful to him for giving her a haven to enjoy herself in, for being so kind and welcoming, and just for a moment she imagines if Cedric had grown up to be Mr. Fortescue's age, he would've been just like him.

She doesn't think further on that, as she exits her favourite place in Diagon Alley, perhaps for the last time.

*

The goodbye to Ellie is tearful and Sally aches, it is also very cheerful in some ways, it's all bittersweet really.

There is still the matter of informing the school about her departure, but she thinks this will really be the last time she will be seeing Eloise, for a long while at least.

The Knight Bus has deposited them again back to her completely mundane life, where there is no beautiful magic around, and night has fully set. Her sad heart at least helps her upset stomach after the second ride in the demonic monster.

"I'm gonna miss you so much, Sal," Ellie wraps her arms around her.

"Me too," she says quietly.

Ellie hugs her again before she turns back to the Knight Bus waiting for her, but the immediately stops again.

"Do you want me to stay, when you tell your parents?" she asks turning.

"No, you go, it has gotten really late, your parents would be worried too, and I can do this."

"Okay, say my goodbyes to them too."

And then Eloise was hugging her again, perhaps for the last time ever.

"Stay safe," she whispered.

"Stay safe," Sally whispered right back.

And then she watched her best friend vanish in the bus, and the bus vanish moments later with a bang, taking all the magic from her life with it's departure.

Sally sighed, and then squaring her shoulder she entered her home.

Her parents looked so relieved to see her, and her constrictedwwith love, they hugged her, and she went to the kitchen for a glass of water.

When she returned to the Living Room, her parents smiled hopefully, knowing that she will give them answers, she has promised after all, and she has never broken her promises.

Sally takes a deep breath, and starts,

_"I need to tell you both something about the wizarding world, and about something that happened at Hogwarts last year..."_

_**~fin** _

**Author's Note:**

> So, um, I guess I really freaking love Cedric, lol.
> 
> Sally is just me at the end regarding Cedric, lol. 
> 
> Sorry that the ending is rushed, though.
> 
> I just googled owl names for Eloise's owl and named her/him the first one I found. Nyra is the name of an owl from _Guardians of Ga'Hoole_. Haven't read the book, saw the movie once so no idea about the owl's gender and am too lazy to research it.
> 
> I keep picturing Florean around Bill's age, but he is likely older than that.
> 
> Also, I'm a guy, and don't know how female friendships work, hoping this was somewhat realistic, lol.
> 
> I was just about to publish this when I realized my mistake regarding the use of underage magic outside of Hogwarts in the story, but I don't want to change what little I wrote in that regard, it's tiny, but I like it, so it's staying. If it's bothering anyone, just imagine no magic was used there at all, lol.
> 
> Stan BTS, they're amazing. :)  
> 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜


End file.
